We require SEI approved helmets and boots with 1/2" heels while riding at all times at our facility regardless of age or riding experience. We know that helmets cannot prevent injuries or head trauma in all cases, but strongly believe they can reduce susceptibility of severe head trauma when accidents occur. Also, if your helmet has been compromised in anyway, you'd be best to get a new one immediately.

Why Protective Headgear is Important

As a safety-certified riding instructor, I've learned the importance of wearing a helmet when riding, and am a real proponent for wearing one. I haven't always been this way. When I was growing up with my trusty mount, Bo, I only wore a helmet when jumping and even then, when competing, I couldn't be bothered with a sloppy looking chin strap in a hunter class (no matter that the headgear would be rendered completely ineffective if it fell off my head when I actually did take a spill!) I was lucky I did not seriously injure myself!. During adulthood, my helmet use increased, especially while riding my green & often volatile horses, but I still could not be bothered with one while riding my horses in the somewhat safe confines of the arena. It wasn't until I started teaching and boarding horses that I knew I had to be a role model for my students & boarders, not to mention value myself enough to take precautions when riding. 

These days I always wear protective headgear while riding and sometimes while working around green horses or while trailer-loading, etc. OK, once in the last 3 years I did make an exception when I was, again, competing in a Western Pleasure class and I admittedly sacrificed sound judgment and good common sense for tradition and vanity and traded my helmet for a cool-looking cowboy hat. By the way, the current USEF Rule Book specifies that protective headgear can be used instead of  traditional headwear in all classes regardless of discipline without penalty from the judge, but even if a rider's sole purpose for reaching FEI-level riding is to sport a swanky-looking top hat & tails, she can at least wear her protective headgear during the warm-up and exchange it for traditional garb before her ride time.

I'm constantly amazed at the number of professional-level instructors who do not insist that their students wear helmets, nor do they wear helmets themselves! I was particularly hard-struck by an article in the October 2005 issue of USDF Connection of the Obituary of Meri Straz, an amazingly talented rider, instructor, & coach who died of head-trama when she hit her head after her horse stumbled & fell on its side. She was not wearing a helmet at the time and I could not help thinking that her life may have been spared had she been wearing one. Here was an experienced rider on a horse that merely slipped & fell--an accident that could happen TO ANYONE, who lost her life due to head trama. I encourage all who work with horses to wear protective headgear while riding. Remember that even the best-made helmet cannot totally eliminate your risk of sustaining a head injury, but it's a simple extra step that you can take.   

Sites on Helmet Use & Equine Safety

 American Medical Equestrian Association's Helmet Safety Page 

Equestrian Safety: A Guide to Promotion of Helmet Use for Riding Clubs and Communities

Equestrian Safety for Kids

More Equestrian Safety Facts for Kids

Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE True Helmet Stories

Powered by Ewisoft eCommerce Website Design Software